August 2009

Except for the radicals and hard-left voters, people who supported Obama in 2008 are slowly becoming disillusioned with the rookie president’s ineptness and inability to tell the truth, not to mention his attempts to move the nation rapidly toward the left.

From Karl Rove:

Obama Losing Support with Hispanics, Young Voters, But Steady with Liberals: President Obama’s job approval rating has fallen to 52% in the most recent weekly Gallup poll (8/17-8/23), down 15 points from its high in January. Obama’s popularity was still as high as 60% at the end of the first week of July. Since then, his approval rating has dropped sharply with key swing demographic groups, falling 15 points with liberal and moderate Republicans, 14 points with Hispanics, 13 points with voters aged 18-29, 13 points with voters who attend church nearly every week or monthly, and 12 points with voters earning between $60,000 and $90,000 per year (-12).

By comparison, his approval rating has remained fairly steady with liberal Democrats (-1), voters in the west (-1), those with post-graduate educations (-2), self-identified liberals (-3), and those earning between $36,000 and $60,000 per year (-4).

Obama’s victory last fall was largely built upon swing voters, not the Democratic base, so the last two months’ trend should be very troubling for the White House.

It should also be very troubling for the DNCC as they look toward 2010. It was mainly Obama’s popularity in 2008 that helped to sweep so many incumbent Republicans overboard.